Archive for the ‘dresses’ Category

Red, white and neon: For the US Open this year, the classic American brand Polo Ralph Lauren is going for a brighter, bolder look, meaning the tennis balls won’t be the only neon items on the court at Flushing Meadows. Above, PRL has outfitted the ball persons in these tops, with the always-large Polo logo on the breast and bright, in-your-face orange paneling on each side of the shirt. Ball persons, lines people and chair judges will all be giving a little bit of a brighter appearance, as PRL has chosen a neon green accent to accompany some of their orange in complementing the always-present navy blue.

It’s Vogue, dahling: How did we miss this?! Just shy of Wimbledon, Vogue.com used their Vogue Daily outlet to post a 110-year history of tennis fashion, called the “Evolution of Tennis Fashion.” The 26-picture slide show scoots through the early 20th century as eventually makes it to today’s looks, punctuated by the Williams sisters and Maria Sharapova. Our favorite look? Katharine Hepburn rocking high-waisted shorts in the 1940s (above, with Ana Ivanovic). | TSF Vault: Vogue

Through the (on court) years: Yahoo‘s Busted Racquet tennis blog edited by Chris Chase is also giving a through-the-years look, but they’re focusing on classic matches. Recently they’ve looked at the classic Pete Sampras-Roger Federer Wimbledon 2001 encounter, and the last Slam Chris Evert would ever win: beating Martina Navratilova at the 1986 French Open. But our fave they’ve written up so far has been from another Martina: Martina Hingis. A look back at her meltdown against Steffi Graf at Roland Garros in 1999. Does it ever get old?!
Tennis trend? Planking has caught on in the tennis community. Hard core.On Tennis.com‘s Daily Spin, Jon Scottchecks in on a Laura Robsonfavorite that kept the US Davis Cup team (too?) busy and entertained last weekend in Austin. And if you’re not quite sure what planking is, read away, folks!

Yes, Sloane does tweet. Our friends over at Adjusting the Nethave a good write-up on Sloane Stephens‘ Q&A with reporters yesterday on a call for the Citi Open later this summer. While Melanie Oudin told TSF last week on a similar call that she kept the social networking tool at an arm’s length, Stephens is known as one of tennis’ best (and funnest) tweeters. She says:

I love Twitter. I post everything myself but my uncle been emailing me since I was 10 years old and on the bottom of his emails they have these quotes and I’ve always found them really cool. So I’ve kept all my uncle’s emails and I go back re-read the quotes on there and think “That’s a good one” so I’ll post that one or whatever. Initially it was just being funny and to just throw stuff out there, but then people responded to me saying I love your tweets and can relate to what you say so I started tweeting more and I’m glad people enjoy it.

SI.com’s Twitter breakdown. Before we get to chatting up the ESPYs, SI.com has their “Twitter 100” out today, a list of 100 sports writers, personalities and athletes that the site felt were the ones writing the sports story on Twitter. While Sloane didn’t make the cut, Serbian players Novak Djokovic and Janko Tipsarevic did, as did Andrea Petkovic. TennisReporters.net writer (and Mr. Do-It-All) Matt Cronin was on the list, as was gay sports outlet, Outsports.com. Next year, TSF, next year!

Did she just wear that? And no, we’re not talking about Maria Sharapova in this one. Serena Williams was quite the sight to be seen last night at the ESPYs, where Seth Meyers hosted. Serena wore a number that gave quite a peek to her front side and her back, and we can’t quite say we were the biggest fans of such an option. Serena, along with Rafael Nadal, won awards for Best Female and Male Tennis Player, respectively. | More: Who looked better? Maria or Brooklyn Decker?
The (fashionably) tall kids: It’s rare to see Maria Sharapova not be the tallest one in the room, but as she chatted about her eye-popping heels backstage, Amar’e Stoudemire joined her and the New York Knick had her by a couple inches — even with heels on. Watch below:

OK, one more! The Biebs was giving us a NASCAR look. And come on, you gotta sorta appreciate it, right?!

short(er) balls: They were rocking the (more distinguished) fashion in Newport last weekend at the festivities surrounding the International Tennis Hall of Fame weekend. An Angelea Moore fashion show raised funds for the Hall. | Rihanna is replacing Megan Fox in the Armani underwear campaign, joining tennis’ Rafael Nadal. | AOL has a good gear and apparel guide for tennis fans — everything under $100. | Sybille Bammerretires from the tour after losing her final match in her home country of Austria. Remember two years ago when the mama was a tour force to be reckoned with? No comeback for her, she says. | Feel better, Miles! Miles Raonic, Canada’s new star, is out for six weeks after hip surgery. That puts his US Open in clear doubt, and definitely means he misses out on the Masters stop in Canada next month. | Caroline Wozniacki‘s dad and coach, Piotr, lashes out over criticism that she should replace him as the guide to her game. He did not join her in Bastad last week, where Wozy withdrew due to injury.

Ruffled around the edges. Serena is 1-1 heading into Wimbledon, 2011. She got bright colors (and losing?) out of her system before descending upon London. | More Serena: The younger Williams has promised fans some karaoke sessions while at her first Major in a year. Yep, she’s got a portable karaoke machine. And yes, she’s trying to corralAndy Murray into doing it with her.

Tennis, meet fashion. | Obviously we (and you!) know that tennis fashion is a year-round sort of gig, but the biggest events are Wimbledon and the US Open — at least from a fashion POV. So for tomorrow night’s players’ party at Richard Branson’s digs, the Telegraph in London is laying out which ladies are wearing which designers. Caroline Wozniacki is unsurprisingly rocking Stella McCartney while Serena will be sporting some Burberry. Vivienne Westwood? That honor goes to one Jelena Jankovic. Work it, ladies!

Bring it, Yao! | Li Na is certainly set up for life. Imagine if this chick wins another Slam?! China might demand that it be able to host its own Major. Experts are saying that with her win at the French, Li will surpass Yao Ming, the NBA star, in marketing prowess. We’re a little blown over by that claim, but the Nike-sponsored hard-hitter already has several offers up and running with IMG, her reps. Li, who currently has contracts with Nike, Rolex and — get this! — Haagen-Dazs ice cream could start to clean up. An industry expert in China puts it this way: “She will bring you the ‘light bulb moment’ as an international professional athlete. She is good at her sports, and her personality combines western civilization and oriental wisdom. She is frank, sincere with a steady and relaxed style,” explained Qiang Wei, a sports marketing director.

Wimbledon greats. Ten of them, to be exact. The best ten matches from SW 19’s history. They’re stacked up — oddly? — by BestCollegesOnline.net. This is a great selection! And the video clips are surreal to watch one after the other.

Tennis in Times Square. If you wanted more visuals from our post about the US Open tickets sales event in Times Square, TSF contributor and Tennis.com intern Benjamin Snyder put together a pretty snappy gallery. And how about his one-on-one with Judah Friedlander in the captions? We dig.

Pimms with lemonade? On the Tennis Channel website, columnist James LaRosa has conjured up the most hilarious (and ridiculous) Wimbledon drinking game we’ve even encountered. And we love it.

Short(er) balls: Because we know Erwin (and Troy!) care, just a note to say that Mary Kate and Ashleyturned 25 on Monday. OMG! | Jon Wertheim? He picks Serena to win Wimbledon. | Sure, Roger Federer is a cute dad, but we don’t think he falls into the “hot” realms of David Beckham. | ATP Executive Chairman Adam Helfantwill step down at the end of 2011. | The new home of British heiress Petra Ecclestone? Don’t worry, it has a tennis court. (And cost over $100 million.) | We’ll be at the HSBC exo on Monday with Monica Seles and Jim Courier. We’ll bring the sunscreen (for Jim!) and you guys bring the Grunt-o-Meter.

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Any of our Italian fans up for a bit of translation? Gisela Dulko is featured in the latest issue of SportWeek, Italy’s sports magazine. The article (as far as we can tell), focuses on Gisela and her partnership with Italian Flavia Pennetta and their victory at the Australian Open in doubles this year. Ladies look goooooooood! Above and below: Dulko.

UPDATE: Reader Palbi weighed in, giving us a synopsis: “[Gisela] says that Flavia and her are best buddies and speaks about her boyfriendFernando Gago, from Real Madrid. He saw her on TV and asked someone to get him her number. Apparently that’s how soccer player rolls these days. In other news, she’s a Federer fan and she thinks that winning a Grand Slam in double is the same as winning one in singles.” Thanks Palbi!

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Sad that you haven’t seen more fashion coverage from us this year? Well here it is. In one post. For the entire year. Now we’re hanging up our measuring tape, magnifying glasses and red pen and watching The Devil Wears Prada in German over, and over, and over again. Click image to watch the video.

Nicolas Mahut, the famous Frenchman who was on the losing end of the epic Wimbledon battle with John Isner last summer, made quite the ruckus at the Hopman Cup in Perth recently, donning matching outfits with mixed doubles partner Kristin Mladenovic. Even Bethanie Mattek Sands, the queen of quacky outfits was giving some giggles. And dang, isn’t Mahut looking good? We think so. | 28-year-old journeyman Mahut into round 2 of Aussie qualies

Venus was clad in a new number from Eleven. (photo by richard perry/nyt via nytimes.com)

Beyond the tennis world, the US Open takes on a life of its own in the New York media when it comes to town. Most impressive so far has been the UrbanDaddy scoop on the WAGs of tennis players (wives and girlfriends, just in case you weren’t sure). While we haven’t heard of half these ladies, it was nice to see someone talk positive about Nicole Vaidisova for once. The best line? This one about Brooklyn Decker: “The woman so beautiful they named not only one of the Five Boroughs after her, but also a popular and affordable line of power tools.” We’re still wondering, though: who wins a cage match, Mirka or Kim Sears?!

You’d be hard pressed to find more comprehensive coverage of the Open than the New York Times (full disclosure: I’m helping with said coverage). The paper even went as far as to send a food critic out to sample the food court. While the Times does have gargantuan coverage, SI.com has a new tennis blog, Open Source, that’s operating during the tournament. Meanwhile, our fellows bloggers are providing stand-up coverage. FortyDeuceTwits has us in fits of laughter daily, DowntheLine! is always quotable (and has a great post/video of the Azarenka collapse) and Kenneth in the 212 couldn’t provide better tennis shirtless pics (rivaling ours?!) on a weekly basis.

Oh, and before the cut, another look at the arm art, er, tattoo, from one, Bethanie Mattek-Sands. This time, it matches her top.

Kim Clijsters threw out the first pitch after meeting the Mets team in Queens on Friday in New York. A day earlier, she was the USTA’s guest of honor at the draw ceremony (AP photo via Yahoo! Sports).

RalphLauren.com pulled out all the stops on Thursday afternoon for an event featuring Venus Williams, in which Venus took questions from online submissions from around the world in a live clinic. At the Sportime Randall’s Island tennis center in New York, Venus was on court for the first time in a public setting since her eyebrow-raising loss to Tsvetana Pironkova in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. But instead of thwacking errors and a look of confusion, Venus was all smiles and tennis knowledge in the clinic, which was hosted by the British TV personality (and former player) Annabel Croft.

Venus, who is the no. 3 seed at the US Open and one of the favorites though she hasn’t been on tour in two months, talked fitness, forehands and gave plenty of tennis tips from her 26 years of experience on the court. The event was hosted by Ralph Lauren and Mercedes Benz, based on RL’s homepage for viewers to log in and watch live while Venus answered questions relayed by Croft. (Watch a full replay of the clinic here or click on the image after the jump.)

“It’s good for me to remember the basics when I’m about to play a big tournament,” Venus said, referring to the Open. Venus partnered with Ralph Lauren in the design of the dress she wore, a white number emblazoned with the logo of Eleven, Venus’s clothing line.

Guests were greeted with sweet mint tea, pistachio ice cream sandwiches and caramelized popcorn on the upper deck at Randall’s Island, which hosts the New York Sportimes during the World Team Tennis seasons. Male models clad in red Ralph Lauren polos dished out the goods as Venus strode through the crowd on her way to hair and make up (this was a live, online clinic, after all).

The clinic was a part of a myriad of events happening in New York this week, which all lead up to the big show at Flushing Meadows starting on Monday.

Alright, ladies, you finally have a chance to own a Venus Williams dress via the EleVen sale on Gilt.com. Included in this drop are the buzz-worthy dresses that we’ve seen her wear in the last two years: the Tie Dye Slip Dress (aka the can-can dress) from Miami ’10, $99; the Goddess Dress from Wimbledon ’08, $79; the Tie-Dye Halter Dress from Miami ’09, $89; and the Slit Front Dress from Melbourne ’10, $89.

Not pictured is a pink version of the beautiful Double Cross Back Dress, which appeared during Venus’ doubles play (with Serena) at Wimbledon ’09, $79.

We caught up with Venus at the Ralph Lauren Legends Clinic yesterday to ask her about the Gilt sale. She expressed excitement about seeing her designs again come to life; her team has taken a long time (and is still in the process of) replacing Steve & Barry, the now-defunct company that used to manufacture and sell her line.

And what’s the next step for Venus? She hinted at new EleVen designs appearing in future Gilt sales. For now, we’ll occupy ourselves with what’s been put out.

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Caroline Wozniacki might be adidas‘ choice to sport the much-coveted Stella McCartney line on the court, but her predecessor, Ana Ivanovic, still books the corner spot when it comes to ad space.

The adidas Soho store in New York has a bank of windows full of tennis players and gear (Wozniacki, Ivanovic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Andy Murray) in anticipation for the US Open, but while Wozy might have the most square footage of any subject with her McCartney display, it’s Ivanovic and Murray who get one of Manhattan’s busiest street corners (Broadway and Houston) to peer over all day long.

There’s no Maria Kirilenko (the former Stella gal) in sight in the window display (full photos after the jump), nor does 2009 US Open quarterfinalist Melanie Oudin make an appearance.

TSF takes over the West Coast this week as I made the drive from Cottonwood, Idaho, (yeah, it exists) to San Francisco yesterday for a little R&R and a day at the Bank of the West Classic tomorrow in Palo Alto, at Stanford. Meanwhile, Erwin is holding court in LA for the Farmers Classic, making sure that the boys adhere to the warm weather shining on SoCal and going shirtless on the practice courts.

This week’s version of short balls comes on Tuesday, a little earlier than usual. Enjoy!

I’ll make the drive down to Palo Alto tomorrow for a day at the 40th annual Bank of the West Classic, now the longest-running women’s event on tour. Bank of the West has been the title sponsor since 1992 at this event, something that is unheard of in the days of fast-moving money. (Remember the Lipton Championships? Or the Kraft WTA Tour? Seems like centuries ago… ) The Bank of the West has been at Stanford’s Taube Tennis Pavilion since 1997, and just this year announced partnership with Rebounces, a green company that runs a tennis-ball recycling program nationwide. Balls brought in by members of the public (and those used in the tournament) will be collected and recycled by Rebounces, with the help of FedEx to get them shipped and donated to a local youth tennis program. Thumbs up to that!

There’s always plenty of tennis action on the pages of Twitter, and this week a few more tennis names added themselves to the never-ending world of Tweets. Janko Tipsarevic asked his followers to “bare” with his bad English (gladly, Janko, gladly). WTAers Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Alisa Kleybanova have also joined the Twitter ranks. Anastasia is playing in Istanbul this week, whiles Kleybs was already dismissed from Stanford by a studious Ana Ivanovic. Before she was bounced outta the Bay Area, Kleybs sat down with Chris Oddo for an interview featured on On The Baseline.

The USTA announced yesterday that it is partnering with longtime supporter American Express for a program called Fresh Courts. The program will invest money in 17 different tennis courts in three urban centers, including Los Angeles, DC and New York. In NYC, the benefactors will be our friends over at McCarren Park in Brooklyn. The USTA will head up the fixing up of the courts themselves, as it oversees around 700 refurbishing projects each year.

For a little bit of a fashion fix, I’m digging this Lacoste v-neck(and the model!) I ran across yesterday. $40 online. Meanwhile, Serena might be questionable for the US Open itself, but that’s not keeping Nike from prepping itself for her outfit at said tourney. The Control Court dress (seen here via TennisConnected) is $85 and might – just might – be made famous by ReRe if she’s able to show at Flushing Meadows come late August. This is the black version of her Wimbledon get up, which helped her to her 13th slam title.

TSF had the pleasure and honor of attending last week’s Legends Ball, an annual event put on by the International Tennis Hall of Fame each year during the U.S. Open. While the event was attended by many tennis great (more posts to come in the near future), there were some celebs on hand that we couldn’t help but pull aside for a little chat on the red carpet.

The first was Ramona Singer, of “Real Housewives of New York” fame. While Ramona might be best known for her ‘crazy-eye look‘ on the show, the reality star had no crazy going on in her eyes when we chatted with her, and she looked fit and refreshed in a Kimberly Taylor dress that featured coral-like sequins up the right side to the shoulder.

Her husband, Mario, advised Ramona to play with Jimmy Connors when TSF asked about who Ramona might pick as her doubles partner for a tennis re-match with Jill Zarin this season.

Speaking of Jill, she was also in attendance at the Ball, and spoke a few minutes with TSF after asking us “What publication are you with?” When I responded, “TennisServedFresh, an online tennis fashion blog,” she smiled widely and said, “OK.”

Jill (pictured above) looked great in person as well, laughing at me when I asked her if she had a plan for her re-match with Ramona.

“Of course I have a plan!” She said. “I’m Jill Zarin!”

Duh! My mistake.

Find out who Jill was wearing, see photos from the event and discover who TSF gives a low grade for her red carpet performance after the cut. (more…)

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Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova adds to her strong year (two finals — Amelia Island and Toronto) by dispatching world No. 5 and reigning French Open champ Ana Ivanovic 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 in the second round of the Kremlin Cup. She showed up the Serb (sorry, Ana) by wearing a simple white Lacostetennis dress trimmed with slate.

And in her loss to Beijing bronze medalist Vera Zvonareva in the following round, she traded her dress for the Interlock Skirt and a Dot-Printed polo.

Lacoste has finally dropped its fall goods, including some items specific to the U.S. Open (just around the corner!). We also get a preview of what the sexy Dominika Cibulkova and other Lacoste ladies will likely be wearing in Queens.

These separates are highlighted by keyhole detail on the sleeves and contrasting white bands on the sleeves and the ribbed banded hem. A very simple design with enough accents to be sophisticated.

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I really wish the gods did more to help the career of Russian Maria Kirilenko, if only so her clothes would get more face time.

Maria’s latest adidas by Stella McCartney outfit combined the Fall ’07 tennis dress (in white) with the bra top and hot pants (in Electricity aka lime — take that, Tatiana Golovin). Unfortunately, she crashed out in the first round of the Kremlin Cup with a 4-6, 6-4, 1-6 loss to Agnieszka Radwanska.

Flashback: As you may remember, she wore the brown version of this dress earlier this fall. Brown or white — which looks better on Maria? Tell us!

Buy: The dress is $120; the bra top, $65; and the hot pants, $60 — all at adidas.com.

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Consider TSF among the most disappointed of the bunch when Maria Sharapova announced withdrawing from this week’s Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart because of her nagging shoulder injury.

And its not just because we wanted to see a display of her tenacity; we also wanted to see her new post-U.S. Open Nike outfit.

The pink Sharapova Drop Shot Double Layer Dress features a front patch pocket and a cable screenprint down the back. (I darkened the picture on the right to show this detail.) The inner heathered layer has a Swoosh on the chest.

So while she skipped Stuttgart, Masha’s due for an appearance at next week’s Kremlin Cup. Of course, this could be another chapter of “Girl who cried ‘I’m healthy to play'” — we won’t know until she actually shows up in Moscow for her first match. FYI, she received a wildcard after the withdrawal of a seemingly healthy Justine Henin. We have our fingers crossed for her health.

There are other pretty cute pieces in the women’s collection. Take a look.

In her 7-5, 6-2 win over Ukranian Julia Vakulenko, Nike has put Serena in a softer version of her bow-beleaguered U.S. Open dress in what looks to be the stealth grey/burgundy colorway. The empire-waisted A-line number is pleated down the front and back to maximize movement. FYI, adidas put Maria Kirilenko in similar colors for this season.

And for accessories, she wore a ring (which we’ve seen on Venus) and — apparently — passed on nail polish.

Buy: The Open version of her Fall dress (in the black/pink colorway) is still available. On sale for $95 at Midwest Sports.